The main styles of wrestling depend on whether the question concerns Olympic wrestling, internationally recognised competitive wrestling or the broader family of wrestling traditions. The two Olympic styles are freestyle wrestling and Greco Roman wrestling. Freestyle permits attacks to both the upper and lower body, including attacks to the legs, while Greco Roman wrestling restricts attacks to the area above the opponent's waist and places particular emphasis on upper body control, throws and exposure.
Other major competitive traditions include folkstyle or scholastic wrestling, particularly in the United States, and numerous traditional regional forms. Professional wrestling is also called wrestling but is a separate entertainment format rather than a direct equivalent of competitive amateur wrestling. Consequently, the phrase main styles is context dependent, and the two most important styles in international Olympic competition are freestyle and Greco Roman.
Freestyle wrestling is an international wrestling style governed at elite level by United World Wrestling. Wrestlers can attack the opponent's legs and can use techniques involving the legs, hips and upper body. Takedowns, exposures, turns, reversals and pins are central components of competition. The ability to change levels and attack the legs creates a large technical vocabulary involving single legs, double legs, ankle attacks, body attacks, throws and counterattacks. Freestyle also permits certain leg entanglements and defensive actions that would not be used in the same way under Greco Roman restrictions. Its broad attack area produces a highly dynamic style in which wrestlers frequently transition between standing attacks and mat control.
Greco Roman wrestling is another Olympic discipline and is distinguished by its prohibition on attacks below the opponent's waist. Wrestlers therefore cannot deliberately attack or use the opponent's legs in the same manner as freestyle wrestlers. The restriction places greater emphasis on upper body grips, body locks, arm control, throws, lifts, trips that comply with the rules and sophisticated hand fighting. A wrestler must learn to generate force through the trunk, hips and upper body while maintaining legal contact. High amplitude throws are an important feature of the style, although the rules impose restrictions designed to regulate dangerous actions. Greco Roman wrestling can appear visually different from freestyle because its legal attack area encourages prolonged upper body exchanges and specialised throwing techniques.
Folkstyle wrestling, commonly called scholastic or collegiate wrestling in the United States, is another major competitive style, although it is not the Olympic style used internationally. It has its own rules and scoring concepts, with considerable emphasis on control, riding, escapes, reversals and maintaining control over an opponent. The concept of time in control is particularly important in many folkstyle contexts, and the competitive strategy differs from international freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling.
Folkstyle developed within American educational and collegiate systems and has a large participation base. Some techniques overlap with freestyle, but the scoring priorities and legal requirements differ. A wrestler who transitions between folkstyle and freestyle must therefore adapt technical habits to the different objectives and rules rather than assuming that the same action has the same scoring value.
Beyond these internationally prominent styles, wrestling exists in numerous traditional forms. Mongolian Bökh has a distinctive competition environment and rules involving throwing an opponent to the ground, while Turkish oil wrestling involves competitors wearing leather trousers and competing in an established traditional format. Georgian Chidaoba, Senegalese wrestling, Icelandic glima, Swiss Schwingen and many other regional traditions have their own techniques, equipment, rituals and rules.
Japanese sumo is historically and culturally a wrestling discipline in the broad sense but has a distinct ruleset and competitive identity. These forms demonstrate that wrestling is not inherently defined by a single universal scoring system. Regional styles developed in response to local culture, clothing, terrain, social institutions and sporting traditions, creating significant technical and ceremonial diversity.
Catch wrestling and submission wrestling represent other branches of the broader grappling landscape. Catch wrestling historically incorporated pins and submission holds, and its techniques influenced some later grappling systems. Modern submission wrestling can encompass different combinations of takedowns, positional control and submission techniques depending on the organisation. Brazilian jiu jitsu developed from judo and other grappling influences and is usually classified separately from wrestling because submissions are central to its competitive objectives.
Mixed martial arts also uses wrestling extensively but combines it with striking and submission fighting. These distinctions are useful because the term wrestling can refer narrowly to a ruleset or broadly to a family of combat traditions. The presence of overlapping techniques does not make all these sports identical.
The differences between wrestling styles are primarily produced by their rules, legal target areas, scoring priorities, match objectives and competition environments. Freestyle rewards attacks involving the entire body, including the legs, while Greco Roman concentrates on upper body wrestling. Folkstyle places distinctive emphasis on sustained control and riding. Traditional forms may use clothing grips, specific throwing requirements or culturally specific victory conditions. Equipment can also differ, with modern Olympic wrestling normally using a singlet and wrestling shoes while traditional forms may use entirely different clothing. The same basic biomechanical principle, such as taking an opponent's balance, can therefore appear in many styles while being expressed through different techniques.
Understanding the main styles of wrestling is important because terminology such as takedown, exposure, pin, reversal and throw does not always have identical meanings or scoring consequences across disciplines. A person researching wrestling should first identify the ruleset before comparing techniques or results. In the modern international sporting context, freestyle and Greco Roman are the principal Olympic styles, while folkstyle is particularly prominent in American school and university competition and numerous traditional forms remain important internationally. There is no single worldwide hierarchy in which every style can be reduced to one standard set of techniques. Each developed within a particular historical and sporting environment, and its rules determine which forms of control are rewarded.
